JOHN Curtice has suggested that the Greens could be "pivotal" to the next UK government.
The polling expert made the comments at the Green Party of England and Wales party conference fringe event, hosted by cross-party think tank Demos, in Brighton on Friday.
It comes after Curtice previously told The National that plummeting support for Labour shows the party will need to work with others in order to reach a majority in the House of Commons.
An MRP poll from YouGov published last month found that Labour would be the largest party in a hung parliament if a General Election were held tomorrow.
A total of 326 MPs are needed in order to form a majority. According to the polling from YouGov, Labour would win 241 seats, while the Greens could get nine MPs, while the SNP are on 40.
Speaking at the fringe event on Friday, Curtice discussed recent polling which he said indicated Labour and the LibDems would not have enough seats to form a government, which he said meant the Greens could play a key role.
The leading pollster showed there were some seats where Labour are first and the Greens are in second, with Labour losing support in some of these areas.
Curtice said: "You're still not going to have many MPs, if these projections are at all right.
"On the other hand, according to three of them, you could still potentially have a pivotal role in the next House of Commons."
Curtice said this is because "Labour plus LibDems, according to three of these projections, do not get to 326, whereas you're somewhere between three and nine seats".
He added: "So you potentially are in the position of having leverage even if you're not necessarily positioned where you might get seats."
Green peer and former leader Natalie Bennett, also in attendance at the event on Friday, said the polling presents "a real challenge and a real opportunity" for her party.
"The job of all of us, the job of us is to turn all of those second places that you see in those MRP polls," she said.
"We can, and I'm confident we will, find a way to turn lots of them into firsts.
"This is my focus and this is what journalists are increasingly asking me about, Greens being part of the next government. That's a real challenge and a real opportunity"
